Imbalance continued in the news
magazines. In comparing the January 25 and February 1 issues, Time
led the magazines with 86 words of quotes from the House managers, but
they more than tripled the space for Clinton’s crew with 214 words.
Time gave 86 words to Ruff’s teary rebuttal of Hyde.

And praise surrounded the
quotes: "If Ruff was compelling and Craig meticulous, Cheryl Mills was a
left hook," Nancy Gibbs claimed. "Her very presence there brought some
electricity into the gaslit setting. All lemony charm and discipline, at
times condescending, at times lethal in her sarcasm, and breathtaking in
her daring, she argued that the Senators need not fear that acquitting
Clinton would harm women or civil rights; she would vouch for
him...Mills’ White House office quickly filled up with so many flowers
from well wishers that aides joked it looked like a wedding chapel."

Newsweek’s coverage arrived with this headline: "Clinton’s the one
in the dock, but he’s got Republicans on the run." Howard Fineman and
Daniel Klaidman surmised: "The main question is not ‘What will Monica
say?’ but ‘How much will the GOP pay?’"

While Newsweek gave the
House managers 10 words, they provided the White House lawyers 44. They
touted the superiority of Clinton’s lawyers: "The 13 House managers did
their best against the White House lawyers, but they were up against the
best criminal-defense lawyers money can buy."

U.S. News & World Report printed 48 words from the managers, but
quoted 39 words from Clinton counsels in a one-page trial piece. But
Marianne Lavelle and Major Garrett also argued "the men from the House
did, in fact, fumble some details — and the President’s team was there
every time to pick up the ball." They also lionized Dale Bumpers’
closing as "the perfect ending to a defense strategy that had portrayed
the President’s wrongdoing as private, not public."